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This week in celebration of Mother’s Day, I’ve been reading books with strong female characters, whether fictional or actual.  The first book I tackled was Memorial: The Mystery of Mary of Bethany by Delores Kimball.  This is a very short read at only 120 pages.  It could be used as a quick book study for a ladies’ group or maybe a Sunday School class.  I’ve always related more to Martha, the exasperated hostess who was scolded by Jesus for worrying about the kitchen instead of worship.  That’s more like my personality, so Mary’s open commitment and disregard for other people’s views seemed a bit of an enigma to me.

Kimball helps to spell out some of Mary’s actions in a way that made them easy to understand.  She also presents Mary’s point of view in light of the culture in Mary’s day.  The book was dry and repetitive in some parts.  It’s the kind of book that I read a little at a time despite its brevity. Still, there are some interesting points made throughout its pages.  If you’re looking for a book that provides background to Biblical times, this is a good start.

Another book I recently finished was Gathering Shadows by Nancy Mehl.
 There are so many things I’d love to say about this book, but I really don’t want to give you a spoiler.   It’s safe to tell you what Amazon gives as the book’s summary: Wynter Evans is a promising young reporter for a television station in St. Louis, but even a bright future doesn’t take away her pain over the disappearance of her brother nine years ago. So when she stumbles across a photograph of a boy with an eerie resemblance to him, she can’t pass up the chance to track him down. With research for work as her cover, she sets out with one of the station’s photogs for the place where the picture was taken: the town of Sanctuary.  

Normally I vehemently avoid any books that deal with childhood abduction or abuse.  My soft heart just can’t take the thought of children in pain. This book caught me, though, because I needed to know how Wynter would piece together the clues she found regarding her suspicions that she might have found her brother.  Although she was young, Wynter was a tough chick.  I rooted for her several times as I read!   The suspense was almost tangible. My heart started beating faster and I felt the blood rushing through my ears as the adrenaline pumped through the pages.  Books that capture my interest like that always get high marks from me, but even more than that was Mehl’s vivid description of the town of Sanctuary.  Sometimes it’s difficult for me to really envision the setting of a first book in a series, but not so with Gathering Shadows.  If you want a strong female character with the guts to follow her instinct, hit Gathering Shadows!

Now, if the suspense is right up your alley but you want something with some serious action, choose Fatal Exchange .  This one has big time suspense and some good cop/bad cop interchange.   My husband and I are watching season 3 of Fringe (we try to get at least two episodes in per night) so this book was just the thing to fill in the entertainment gap. Emily Hunt was a teacher so I felt an instant connection to her.  Fatal Exchange’s story relied on a little mystery, some romantic tension, and a lesson on trust.  The thrill kept up right to the last few pages.  I always like having a story that wraps up at the end so that there’s at least some closure; Fatal Exchange provided that to some degree.  Mystery isn’t usually my favorite genre and I found myself being nowhere near the correct solution when I got to the end.  The writing style was engaging, though, and I liked that the characters weren’t completely transparent.

So this week was a pretty good one in terms of books.  How was your week?